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Add Big Chunk Working anti-pattern #54

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24 changes: 24 additions & 0 deletions documents/anti-patterns/big-chunk-working.md
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---
authors: [aino_vonge_corry]
---

# Big Chunk Working (Anti-pattern)

## Problem
AI makes it easy to generate very large changes quickly.

## What Goes Wrong
Ship big, sweeping changes as one large bulk.

**Consequences:** the work becomes hard to understand, hard to review, and easy to merge with hidden damage.

**Symptoms:** huge diffs, shallow reviews, uncertainty about what changed.

## Example
This has happened often: some developers disappear for three months, claim they're working on something alone, and quietly spiral into frustration and burnout. Now this can happen in days, and the team members who have to review the code become the ones left depressed and frustrated.

## Solution
Slice work smaller. Keep diffs explainable by humans, not just generated by machines.

## Related Patterns
Solved by Chain of Small Steps and Feedback Loop. Caused by Keeping Up. Causes Flying Blind.
6 changes: 5 additions & 1 deletion documents/relationships.mmd
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patterns/canary-in-the-code-mine -->|solves| obstacles/context-rot
patterns/chain-of-small-steps -->|solves| obstacles/degrades-under-complexity
patterns/chain-of-small-steps -->|solves| obstacles/limited-focus
patterns/chain-of-small-steps -->|solves| anti-patterns/big-chunk-working
patterns/check-alignment -->|solves| anti-patterns/silent-misalignment
patterns/check-alignment -->|solves| obstacles/black-box-ai
patterns/chunking -->|solves| obstacles/limited-focus
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -54,6 +55,7 @@ graph LR
patterns/active-partner -->|solves| anti-patterns/flying-blind
patterns/feedback-loop -->|solves| anti-patterns/flying-blind
patterns/constrained-tests -->|solves| anti-patterns/flying-blind
patterns/feedback-loop -->|solves| anti-patterns/big-chunk-working
patterns/habit-hooks -->|solves| obstacles/cannot-learn
patterns/habit-hooks -->|solves| obstacles/context-rot
patterns/hooks -->|solves| obstacles/selective-hearing
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -129,6 +131,7 @@ graph LR
anti-patterns/sunk-cost -->|related| anti-patterns/answer-injection
anti-patterns/sunk-cost -->|related| anti-patterns/tell-me-a-lie
anti-patterns/cognitive-overload -->|causes| anti-patterns/flying-blind
anti-patterns/big-chunk-working -->|causes| anti-patterns/flying-blind

%% Anti-pattern → Obstacle relationships (related/causes)
anti-patterns/sunk-cost -->|related| obstacles/limited-context-window
Expand All @@ -143,4 +146,5 @@ graph LR
obstacles/obedient-contractor -->|related| anti-patterns/silent-misalignment
obstacles/compliance-bias -->|causes| anti-patterns/silent-misalignment
obstacles/black-box-ai -->|causes| anti-patterns/silent-misalignment
obstacles/keeping-up -->|causes| anti-patterns/flying-blind
obstacles/keeping-up -->|causes| anti-patterns/flying-blind
obstacles/keeping-up -->|causes| anti-patterns/big-chunk-working
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